Wuthering Hike - 10th March. 32miles

'See the man o'er there in the dress. He'll park you up'

March arrives and 'Antisocial' from the FRA forums will be around helping you park your car or guiding you towards registration for the Wuthering Hike, or Haworth Hobble as it used to be known.
It seems like the start of the season as this race has always marks the first of the runfurther series and an opportunity to catch up with old friends and acquaintances.  I wasn't to be disappointed.  Nick, showing off his new tattoo and emblazoned with runfurther 'merch'.  (Did he get 3 runfurther/inov8 caps for his grand slam?).  Of course, Mark and Danny were out for a run around.  Stephen and Jason, the Lakes 50 team winners also still seem to have the ultra bug and many others all eager to get some points on the board.

Training from since last October really has been going well in comparison to previous years and while not getting in that many really long runs my general fitness and speed seems to be increasing, however in the week or two running up to 'the hobble' I'd had some really long stressful days at work and instead of tapering to full fitness I was just left feeling run down and tired.  Adding to the stress, for the drive up to Haworth my dad had given me his old sat nav which I decided to use for the first time ever.  Bad move.  I had no idea where it was taking me but I suppose that's the idea.  I ended up going some daft route around West Yorkshire through Sowerby Bridge with the map on my lap and the gadget not updating quick enough.  I did arrive in good time but more stressed out than I would have done if I'd have gone my usual route.  Don't know why I bothered, not as if I'd never been there before.

Another year, Another March morning in Haworth

A record turnout it seems this year and I never even heard Brett set us on our way.  I was unsure how to play it this year with my previous times being 2009-6:35, 2010-5:48 and 2011-5:47 I wasn't predicting a PB.  I settled into a start easy strategy and ran with Mark and Danny to see how it felt.

As we exited Haworth and ventured off road it did seem a bit wetter than previous outings.  The nicely laid flagstones turned out to be very slippy and it was either use them or go through the gloop.  I didn't find this too much of a hardship as I've now set aside a pair of X-talons just for racing in to prolong the grip.

Widdop Resevoir and Long Causeway checkpoints came and went and we chatted away merrily all the way.  It was about Long Causeway that I realised that it was supposed to be a race and I'd taken considerably longer than I should at the checkpoints, in fact way longer than I have on previous efforts and the walking breaks were coming more often.
I should have pushed on after Long Causeway but got too comfortable and and stayed with Mark and Dan.

My previous lethargy had now cleared and I was feeling stronger.  I usually don't stop at Stony Lane for the hot dogs but on this occasion the CP had moved a few hundred yards to the path junction meaning you didn't have to go out of your way to get one.  It tasted pretty good and was just the job for this relaxed pace.
On the way down to Todmorden we see Wendy Dodds and a few others coming the other way, missed the CP apparently.

Climbing towards Mankinholes.  Stoodley Pike ahead

The navigation or should that be memory of the route from Todmorden golf club down to the road went like a dream with the optimum route taken and the shoes gripping well in the mud.  I waited for M&D half way down just in case they went astray.
Next up was the first of the two steep climbs, this one up to Mankinholes and my holding back earlier was paying off as it didn't seem that bad.
'Mr Brightside' was on hand at Mankinholes CP with, for the second year running, a bottle of Jura for anyone who would like a tipple and/or a box of saxa table salt for anyone suffering from a dose of cramp(quite common after the Makinholes climb).  I declined on both, I'm not really a Whisky fan and  cramp isn't usually a problem.  Incidently I'd gone for a healthy approach on this one with a handful of Nakd bars and a carton of alpro soya chocolate milk for later on.  The Nakd bars were going down well and no stomach distress was evident.

Clearly More takers for the Jura than the juice!

Route choice was bang on again up Stoodley Pike with a nice steady traverse but it was quite blustery up there with not a sole in site.  We quickly made a beeline for the Pennine Way.

As an aside, regarding the Pennine way. Mark had come up with a plan that if he didn't get into UTMB 2012 then he would have a go at the Pennine way for a personnal challenge.  He eventually come up with a 6 day schedule going North to South at between 35-57 miles a day stopping at YHAs or whatever was available.  As with many others, neither of us got a place at UTMB so I've jumped on the opportunity to Join Mark on this journey into multiday trips.  All accomodation is booked and it's all on for the Start of September.  Should be epic!

Meanwhile.... The plod continued down the new Pennine way track and I braced myself for the bog at the bottom.  I was pleasantly surprised when a newly layed path of flagstones appeared to keep our feet dry.
The weather had brightened up a lot since the earlier mist and we were heading towards Hebden Bridge, The Lesbian capital of Britain apparently and just on queue a pair of young ladies walked past hand in hand.
Hebden Bridge is always a bit tricky navigation wise for a those not 'in the know' and there were a couple with the map out scratching their heads.  We quickly pointed them to the steps through the gap in the houses that leads to the long climb up to Heptonstall.
It was here that the chocolate milk came out and I've got to say it went down a treat.  Can't remember where I heard of this stuff but it seems to work and is a change from the sickly sweet usual juice drinks.  I was still feeling plenty strong enough but had resigned myself to the fact that I'd played it all wrong and left it too late for a last minute attack!  I'd simply started too slowly and took it too easy.
Similarly at the Midgehole CP8 and road/path junction at CP9 I just treated it as a day out and took my time.
It wasn't until the final mile or so over Penistone hill that I began to feel a little tired but even then I could have pressed on through it.

Navigating through the high street was again, bang on for a faultless run all the way around.  The map never made an appearance.

You know you've had a bad run when you arrive at the finish and there are people changed, packed up and leaving.  The after race stew did taste good though.


Oh dear 6:29 is very slow and It has taken me a week to stop being angry with myself for not giving it a proper go.  I was hoping for at least 1 hour faster than that and should have given it all I'd got at the start.  If I'd have fell apart in the latter stages I would probably have still beaten that time.  That's a definite lesson learnt.  It's all too easy to treat these races as social outings but on this occasion I feel it was an opportunity wasted.  Yes, I felt negative and ill on the week running up to it and not too good on the start but after a couple of miles can honestly say I could have tried harder.  Lets move on shall we..

Gill Harris Long Mynd Tops

While looking around for a longish training run with a decent amount of climb that wasn't too far to travel I came across this new and little known challenge on the Mercia fell runners website.

At around 20 miles and 4500ft of climb the route 'is designed to take in the 22 principal named tops in the National Trust open access area on the Mynd (Knolls is just outside, but with a concessionary path to it) and as the other trig point on the Mynd cannot be omitted, it also felt appropriate to include Gill's finger post on High Park'.
The full description can be found here.

The good folk at Mercia are kind enough to include a list of completers for the round and a including which order all the tops were summited.  This was a good starting point and an interesting one in that the first few rounds were taken in a clockwise direction taking in the big climbs first and later rounds tending to take a ACW route.  Current records show 7 completing CW and  6 ACW.

Of most interest to me was Andy Davies's CW round of 3:18.  With Andy being a multiple Longmynd hike winner and dominating last years LDWA Housman hundred also around the Shropshire hills I felt that if he didn't know a good route no one would.
Doing a quick plot on memory map with the tops in that order produced a most logical route choice.  The elevation profile makes it immediately obvious of the decision to make:  Do the big climbs  Burway Hill,  Yearlet,  Ashlet, Callow first and have tired legs for the good running sections or do the running while fresh and grit out the climbs at the end in a power hike fashion.  I decided on the latter and copy Andy's schedule, at least for this first time recce.

I put the National Trust car parking sticker to good use and left the car in Cardingmill valley so I could take a good look at Stanyeld which appeared quite steep on the map.  It was, but a path was visible the contoured around the backside and presumably to the top.  That seemed good enough so I took a gentle stroll down to the stating point marked as 'The Square' via the back street route I'd plotted.

Start - The Square, I think

Fine weather of very little wind, if a bit warm and favourable ground conditions made for expectations of a good day out as I set on my way from the church entrance as the bells tolled at 10:00am.

In no time I arrived back at the car in the valley and followed the path around Stanyeld until I reached a fence and decided to just go straight up.
I made my way to what I thought was the highest point and hit the lap button on my watch to mark my arrival.  Bodbury ring was visible in the distance and was a straight line to the summit.  Easy so far.

View from Stanyeld

The next top was Novers hill and I was unsure of a good route up to it and was even more unsure now I was actually there because the route I wanted to take ran straight over a golf course that was getting quite busy.  I picked up an obvious path and straight down a gully to a car park round the back of a fenced in farm.  The summit was straight up a bracken covered slope.  I'm sure there is an easier way up here.

The going became a fair bit easier after that as the route joined some minor roads winding their way up to the dinky Castle hill then back onto the road again before arriving at the Long Mynd proper and Plush Hill just inside the cattle grid.

Plush hill

Gill Harris finger post

Next stop was the Gill Harris finger post and the area looked familiar from the Long Mynd hikes that I've done in the past.
The whole Long Mynd section of the route was relatively flat compared to what was to come and some of the tops weren't immediately obvious.  Trust, Honesty and integrity as stated on the website did come into play as I would look around to check I was at the highest points.

Haddon Hills pile of stones summit

Pole Bank summit.  No doubt where the top is here.

 There was no getting around the fact that the 'Portway spine' of the Mynd would have to be used to bag 'Knolls' and would be an out and back past the glider club without losing any height going on to Minton Hill.  I'd not chosen any other option because of lack of familiarity with the area but looking at it on the day I don't think any other way could have been any faster.  Maybe a more direct route through the rough would have saved some time but not much.  Speed wasn't the order of the day anyway, this was just a recce and I took a while watching the paragliders and gliders coming in to land.  It was a shame that the Housman hundred last June didn't provide such fine weather.  This would have been a great pick me up and a change of scenery after going through the night with no sleep.

Paragliding heaven.  There were dozens of them!. Not that you can see here

Gliders landing. On the way to 'Knolls'

Minton Hill and Packetstone Hill were nice runnable sections with the summits just off path and easy to get to.
Shooters Knoll on the other hand looked straight forward enough but I did end up on the wrong peak having to recalculate.  Only a few hundred metres away but 'off' nevertheless.
With all the good running out of he way it was on to the bigger climbs of Callow, Ashlet, Yearlet and the final top, Burway hill..
on all these peaks I lost a lot of time fumbling around and looking for different lines.  I had plotted routes going straight up and down them all but soon noticed there were easier and less steep ways either going up spurs such as grindle hollow or right around the west side to Burway hill.  One thing the OS map didn't show was the type of terrain underfoot.  This is where the local knowledge comes in.  I took a daft line up Burway and ended up cutting my legs to pieces in the gorse.
By the top of Burway hill I realised that because of all the thinking and navigation I'd been going for over 4 hours and had nothing to eat since breakfast.  Just a bottle with zipvit powder and water.  I am hoping this means I'm getting more efficient with energy expenditure.
It was a bit of a struggle coming off Burway and seeing my car in the valley only to go past it and back to the Square.  May as well finish it off properly.

4 hours 36 minutes as a stake in the ground and a very worthwhile recce for a decent attempt at a later date. 
The Shropshire hills and the Long Mynd area are so much better than running on Cannock Chase with the added benefit of being just 1 hour away.
I'll never touch Andy's record but sub 4 hours is a target to aim at.  I will return..

The Route.  Slowing down after Packetstone hill = yellow